1 month ago: Ran at a race Friday night, pulled my horse out of the stall Saturday morning and he was lame, no swelling. Gave bute and poulticed his whole leg since I didn't know what the issue was, got him out two hours later and his knee was swollen so assuming he had just done whatever he did.

After a few days: Took him into the vet who did xrays (which revealed nothing) and determined he torqued it and injected. He was immediately better, gave an additional 10 days off. Took him to 3 races after 2 weeks and he did very well.

Gave two days off and pulled him out of the pasture after having JUST seen him 9 hours before and his knee was swollen again, lame and he had RIPPED a hind shoe off doing who knows what.

Was lame for ~5 days (wrapping, sweating, cold hosing) and is now better but the knee is still swollen, especially after ultrasound therapy. I'm guessing it's joint fluid since the swelling does not receed when wrapping. Just looking for experiences, he goes back to the vet tomorrow. Can they/should they inject again that soon (1 month)? Tendon/ligament involvement maybe? How long would you give off? He's had 2 weeks completely off in a pen by himself with cold hosing, previcox, red light therapy, sweating, wrapping, and recently ultrasound.

Obviously I'll follow what the vet says but always nice to hear others experiences. This has been frustrating since he's my only horse and had finally been running SO good prior to this 

Today, June 12 after 2 ultrasound sessions.

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There’s something going on in the lower joint. Anytime you have fluid come back that soon after injection there’s a problem. Could be cartilage damage or a chip. 

I would re X-ray, make sure the vet takes a picture with the knee flexed. Sometimes it will take awhile for a chip to show up . 

My gelding had something similar to yours a couple of years ago! Xray showed clean, but a scan showed that this was a carpal hygroma. Just soft tissue swelling in the knee joint. In a case like his, injections will not help. We had the vet come and drain the fluid, and luckily it never came back! He was never lame on his though. The vet did say that there was a 50/50 chance of the swelling coming back or not. I'm not sure if this is what yours has, but something to consider  =]  Good luck to you, hope you get your baby feeling 100% asap  <3

Could it be because he was a dink in the pasture that it came back? He really ripped his hind shoe off and his pasture mates are notorious for roughhousing. 

They took xrays at all angles and with it flexed so originally I was not concerned about a chip. I find out in an hour or so. 

Thank you, I did look into that but being he was sore on it and when we originally injected, joint fluid came out so I'm thinking its tenosynivitis. Which hopefully means just reinject and give additional time off then back to the grind. Crossing my fingers

It can take a couple weeks for radiographic changes to show up, so its possible the original problem just wasn't seen yet on rads. Makes me a little worried that only a month later he is sore again. May need more time off. Curious to see what your vet says. 

Update??

Vet says he's sound and to ride him! Thinking he exacerbated the original injury and with a little time off, he was fine. Said the swelling may always come and go and could be his achilles tendon so to speak but flexed completely sound. Giving anti-inflammatories for a bit and compression to see if the fluid will go away, which I believe the ultrasound sessions I did the last couple days helped a lot as I can hardly tell there's any fluid left. 

He doesn't think it's a chip since he ran so good in between the original injury and when he was lame with the shoe ripped off for the second time. Plus he xrays clean at all angles.

I rode him today and he felt awesome, ready to rock. I was leary because I couldn't believe he'd actually be an idiot for the second time in the pasture but they are horses afterall  

I'll update in a couple weeks if I remember once he's legged back up and we hit a race. 

If this was my horse I would at least give him more time off at least 4 to 6 weeks maybe even longer so he can heal from the inside better.

Appreciate the advice, but judging by the way he runs and bucks in the pasture, I don't think it's going to make much of a difference  

Just a quick update, went to two races last week and he ran great at both. Swelling is still there like the vet predicted so I got some hidez ice socks for after we run and he's been sound as a dollar.

I had one years ago that vetted and x-rayed clean. The vet said it would just take a loooooong time for that fluid to discipate. If I remember correctly he had fluid for nearly a year before returning to normal. Never had issues then, don't have issues now. Hoping it's the same case for your boy.